S60 Open to new features

Whenever I think about Roaming, I can't help but think of the great song by The B-52s: Roam. Unfortunately, what happened to one of my Nokia colleagues when he roamed--in a foreign country--was not so great. It's great that he could do it--GSM does allow this very easily--but of course there's the roaming bill you get afterwords.

The good news is, if you plan ahead, you can get prepaid data service fairly cheap in many European countries. It's even a reality in the U.S. as well, thanks to the recent introduction of unlimited data on prepaid by AT&T.

Unfortunately, these great deals aren't there in every country. You have to become an expert in navigating the mobile carriers in the countries you frequent. Not to mention managing all those prepaid SIMs and associated accounts to ensure you don't lose your balances.

There are a new breed of carriers coming out--specifically mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs)--that are trying to address this problem by creating a global SIM. The SIMs themselves effectively roam everywhere, i.e. they do not have a "home" country, necessarily. Their prices are likely a bit cheaper than what your local operator will charge for roaming abroad, but are a bit higher than if you bought a local SIM and topped it off. On the other hand, it's only one prepaid account to have to manage and if you do a lot of traveling, it's a worthwhile alternative.

The other cool thing about these global SIMs is that you can often get local numbers in many different countries--at the same time. For example, I could buy one of these global SIMs and get both a U.S. and U.K. number. This would allow people in either country to call me for the price of a in-country call--no matter where I happen to be in the world.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any of these global SIM operators that provide data services--yet. However, two of the companies I've talked to are working on adding data service. I don't expect the prices to be as good as a local SIM, particularly if the local SIM offers unlimited data, but it will likely be a far cry cheaper than what your operator would charge for roaming data.

It's funny, I've heard the marketing stories about how our products give you access to the right information at the right time so you can act right now. I have three recent examples of that from my own life I'd like to share that illustrate this.

A week ago, my wife was traveling into the U-district in Seattle. She ended up on the Express Lanes on I5 and the exit she needed was closed. She ended up taking the next exit and had no idea where she was. She called me, asking if I could pull up a map from my phone and guide her to where she needed to go. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the phone ring when she called. Fortunately, she remembered enough streets to get where she needed.

On the way back home, she had to deal with a major traffic event: an explosion at the Atlas Foundry in Tacoma shut down the I5/SR16 interchange. It is, of course, possible to drive around this on surface streets, but without a map, if you don't know where you're going, it's tough. Fortunately, her friend's husband knew the way around that traffic mess.

In these first two examples, my wife was lucky. She had other people around that could help. Having that information at her fingertips would have saved her time and money, or at least given her some piece of mind. Even if she didn't have the information, she was aware that I did, no matter where I was. That's a powerful thing.

Now for the business example. I was making breakfast for my son this morning and reading email on my Nokia E61i. I noticed an email had come in related to a customer I am responsible for supporting. I needed to contact the Sales Engineer for the customer, but I did not have his number handy. Normally, it'd be the wrong time of day to call him, but I had also read from the email he was in Europe. Perfect timing.

I looked him up in the corporate phone book--from my handset--and added him into my mobile phone book. I sent him a quick SMS saying to call me regarding this issue. A few minutes later, I received a call from him and discussed the issue. Problem solved.

Of course, because I work in a support organization, I have to update our CRM system with that information. Since the CRM system generally requires using Internet Explorer on a desktop computer, and I was in the middle of trying to get my son out the door for school, I didn't have the time to go through all the steps necessary to do that.

I instead called our Technical Assistance Center. While I was on the phone with TAC, I read them the ticket number in question. While on the phone, I switched over to the email application. I read the ticket number directly from my handset. I gave them the other information they needed to update the ticket on my behalf. And my son managed to get out the door for school on time.

This entire exercise was enabled an executed using devices and services by Nokia. I got the information I needed right when I needed to. I was able to take action--right away. And while I was at home trying to get my kids to school in the process, I could have been anywhere with GSM coverage and done the same thing.

Having these "converged" devices with everything in your pocket is a game changer. It's truly information at your fingertips. Not only can you get information others have generated, you can easily capture or create your own. When you're ready to act on that information, you can do it--right now. Right from your mobile device.

How has Nokia products and services enabled you to get access to the information you need right now? Leave your feedback in the comments.